June 1, 2010 AT 12:01 am

BIG NEWS – All Hacker Spaces in the world get Adafruit reseller pricing starting today

We made an announcement at Maker Faire and here’s the official one!

All Hacker Spaces in the world get Adafruit reseller pricing starting today. What does that mean? All Hacker Spaces around the world can get up to 40% off of our kits and breakout boards, just like our resellers do.

Hackerspaces are community-operated physical places, where people can meet and work on their projects. Many Hacker Spaces have been using our kits for workshops, for events and for running their own businesses to fund their spaces. After seeing how well this is working out for a few Hacker Spaces we’re expanding it to everyone who runs a Hacker Space.

Here’s how it works.

Pick one person from your Hacker Space to be the representative. Have them make an account on Adafruit.com

Email [email protected] include who you are, your Hacker Space URL and number of members. Include the email address you used for the account on Adafruit.com

We will then set you account to “reseller”, email you back and you’ll have access to reseller pricing on our kits, up to 40% off, depend on quantity.

All we ask is that you make orders over $250 per order, this is so we don’t go out of business doing this – so far all Hacker Spaces have been above $500 per order since they’re ordering a lot so we’re putting $250 for now as the minimum.

That’s it! Hacker Spaces are wonderful places filled with wonderful people making things, we’re thrilled many are using our kits and documentation for classes!

@p: While I can’t speak for Adafruit Industries, what you are asking for seems, unfortunately, unreasonable. They are located in the United States. Everything here costs more than in the "less rich" countries. As they said, clearly, in the post "this is so we don’t go out of business doing this". This means that, because the cost of doing business in the U.S. is so high, orders smaller than $250 will cause them to lose money. Paying people to process the order; pack the order; and ship it costs money. By giving this kind of discount, they are already doing all they can for us without risking going out of business.

It is the, unfortunate, state of the world that differences in currency values and labor costs mean that someone from a "less rich" country buying from somewhere like the U.S. will always be confronted with prices that look very, very high from their perspective. This only becomes worse when you realize that shipping things internationally, assuming that Adafruit Industries is set up to sell internationally, (which I have no idea of, one way or the other) adds a lot more to the cost.

Spectacular! We’ll definitely be taking you up on this offer. Thanks for reaching out to the grassroots DIY community; hope this brings you lots of great makerkarma. The Columbus Idea Foundry, Columbus OH

"When you make a thing, a thing that is new, it is so complicated making it that it is bound to be ugly. But those that make it after you, they don’t have to worry about making it. And they can make it pretty, and so everybody can like it when others make it after you" - Pablo Picasso